Berube Is Coaching the Maple Leafs Out of What Makes Them Dangerous

There’s a rhythm to hockey that only comes when you listen closely. Listening to the Toronto Maple Leafs on the radio, with Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph calling the game, you start to notice it in the silences as much as in the goals. It’s during those quiet stretches that you see how a team is really being asked to play.

And lately, for the Maple Leafs, their poor play has been telling.

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Why Craig Berube’s Desire for Low-Event Hockey Is a Problem

It came into focus for me on Dec. 11 against the San Jose Sharks. The Maple Leafs had a 2–0 lead, and very little else was going on. Jim Ralph summed it up best, suggesting on the broadcast that Craig Berube might’ve been the only person liking what he was seeing. Why? Because it was a low-event, restrained style, careful hockey.

On paper, north-south hockey (what Berube is coaching) is efficient. The goal is to move the puck straight up the ice, check hard, shorten shifts, and limit mistakes. For teams without skill, it’s a lifeline. For the Maple Leafs, it’s started to feel like a cage.

Low-event hockey is cautious. But the trouble is that Toronto’s roster isn’t built for caution. Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares — these are players who thrive in chaos, who see and create space, who react instinctively. Ask them to play carefully, and what emerges isn’t discipline. It’s hesitation. Lanes that could be attacked get ignored. Pucks move safely, not purposefully. The game becomes smaller than the talent on the ice.

The Maple Leafs Aren’t Dialling It In, But…

This isn’t to say the Maple Leafs aren’t trying. That’s not the problem. They skate hard, they compete, they chase every puck. The issue is the system asking them to suppress what made them effective in the first place. Low-event hockey only works when it fits the players, like Jacques Lemaire’s Wild in the early 2000s, where restraint covered for a lack of skill. The 2025–26 Maple Leafs aren’t the 2001–02 Wild. Their skill demands more, not less.

The encouraging part is that the choice is still theirs. When the Maple Leafs trust themselves, the results are explosive. Witness the comeback against Chicago from 2–0 down to scoring three goals in seven minutes. That’s hockey played with volume, instinct, and confidence. The question now is whether this team believes in itself enough to turn down the caution and let its talent speak.

Last Night’s Loss to the Capitals Is a Case in Point

Last night’s 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals is an example of the Maple Leafs moving to the dark side of low-event hockey. They did nothing against the Capitals. What they did was skate around the edges but never attack. The result was only a little push, and 22 easy shots on net.

It wasn’t just a loss. It was a dull one. The kind where you sit there waiting for something — anything — to happen, and it never does. I get why the organization tried to change the formula. Years of regular-season success followed by the same dead end will do that. Still, this feels like too much of a correction. This team might not even get in.

A lot of fans want to pin this on the players. I’m not buying that. To my eye, they look scared to try anything risky. They’ve been coached into low-event hockey, and they’re executing it just fine. The problem is that low-event hockey cuts both ways — and on this night, it cut them right out of the game.

Related: Maple Leafs Quick Hits: Injuries, Stecher & Berube on the Hot Seat